He wanted to show the connecting thread – the wire – that ran between seemingly different organisations and the people who worked in them. Alvarez believes that if Simon hadn’t succeeded in pitching The Wire, the themes driving the five seasons might instead have inspired five books. Whether he was exploring police departments, drug cartels, labour unions, the school system, newspapers or city hall, Simon was interested in how the machine worked, or failed to work. If he could explain Baltimore, then he could explain the US.